A Geotechnical Engineering Study for the Safeguard, Restoration and Strengthening of Historical Heritage

Eastern Sicily is very prosperous of monuments and monumental building, but at the same time is one of the most seismically active areas of Italy. In particular the city of Noto, which is now considered the capital of baroque in Sicily, was destroyed by the 1693 Earthquake and rebuilt in another location, as like as some others cities. In order to study the geotechnical dynamic characteristics of the foundation soils of monuments, in situ investigations and laboratory tests have been carried out. Among in situ investigations, Borings, SPT, CPT, D-H, C-H and DMT have been carried out. Among laboratory tests special attention has been devoted to the variation of the non linearity of Young modulus, shear modulus G and damping ratio D by Cyclic Loading Traxial tests and Resonant Column tests. This paper tries to summarise this information in a comprehensive way in order to provide a representative geotechnical model of ground condition where important monuments are located. This enabled the evaluation of site effects to define the earthquake design actions and then the rational restoration and strengthening of some monuments preferably before their collapse.